Friday, February 24, 2017

When you visit Fez, you should try to visit the leather tanneries there. Leather is a big industry in Morocco and when you visit a leather tannery, you realize what is actually involved in the leather tanning process and it is quite remarkable. You don't realize how poor the conditions are for the workers there, you cannot smell it through my photos, but it will definitely hit you once you get there.

If I remember correctly, there are two types of vats. One for helping to remove the fur from the skin and one for dyeing the leather after. Each of the vats hold a different colour dye for colouring the leather and you will see at the top how they hang the skin to dry.

Unfortunately, I did not keep many details when I was on this trip, so I don't recall which leather tannery we visited, but it seems like you cannot go wrong with going to any of the big three leather tanneries in Fez.

Friday, February 17, 2017

During my daily lunch walks (when possible), I occasionally walk by Taddle Creek Park, home of The Vessel sculpture.

Made by Ilan Sandler, The Vessel is a sculpture that was commissioned by the City of Toronto and it is a 5.7m high stainless steel sculpture of a water vessel. It looks pretty neat from afar and as you walk closer you will see the details and during the warmer months, water actually flows from the top and spills to the bottom base of the vessel.

Friday, February 10, 2017

The Miniversum in Budapest, Hungary was actually an unexpected stop when we walked by it. Allison's brother suggested that we visit since he was there not too long before we went and it was quite the surprise.

It is ranked highly on TripAdvisor and if you are into the idea, you will see why (even if you aren't, you might end up enjoying it). I wasn't fond of the idea since I was never into miniatures, but I thought it was worth a shot since it was recommended. Inside Miniversum is a collection of miniatures based on different regions of the world. You will see hills, buildings, trains, civilians, just to name a few things.

My enjoyment of the place was through the series of buttons and dials that allow you to interact with the miniatures every few feet you walk as you go through the attraction. The buttons and dials will trigger things like lights, sounds, helicopter propellers just to name a few and your goal is to find out what you are controlling. Along with this, there are plenty of funny situations that are there that you need to look out for or you will miss such as car crashes or even T-Rex.

This attraction is actually quite new. The idea was conceived in 2012 and it was built and open to the public in 2014. Even as adults with no children, we all had a good time here and it took us roughly an hour to go through everything we wanted and it worked out well since we came when it was a rainy day and everything is indoors.

Friday, February 3, 2017

During a stroll to a breakfast spot in Chicago, we saw these random bronze statues just across the street and since we were waiting, we decided to head over and take some pictures.

Created by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Agora, is the name of this group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures located in Grant Park in Chicago, USA. They were brought here from Poland and have been here on permanent loan since 2006.

Check it out if you have a chance, it looks pretty funky and cool for photos, especially if you are able to get to the top and put your head there.